Ben H says this is a "refinished." The listing says: "Astronomy shop said there were few manufactured in the 1980s by Celestron." We can assume Celestron was not making telescopes for Meade. But, Meade and Celestron did make small runs of scopes over the years that had a luxury item appearance. I can think of other scopes done in brass. Does anyone know if this scope was made by Meade, or whoever, looking this way or did someone down the road 'beautified' it?

Ben H says this is a "refinished." The listing says: "Astronomy shop said there were few manufactured in the 1980s by Celestron." We can assume Celestron was not making telescopes for Meade. But, Meade and Celestron did make small runs of scopes over the years that had a luxury item appearance. I can think of other scopes done in brass. Does anyone know if this scope was made by Meade, or whoever, looking this way or did someone down the road 'beautified' it?

I believe there may have been one or two very eary ones where the mount parts were polished aluminum. Probably prototypes. Mizar made all the 2045s for Meade. I remember seeing the purple tube prototypes in 1979 when I was working at Meade. Are you sure that's brass, and not just the lighting? wouldn't be hard to put contact paper on the aluminum tube. I doubt it's veneer.

Ben H says this is a "refinished." The listing says: "Astronomy shop said there were few manufactured in the 1980s by Celestron." We can assume Celestron was not making telescopes for Meade. But, Meade and Celestron did make small runs of scopes over the years that had a luxury item appearance. I can think of other scopes done in brass. Does anyone know if this scope was made by Meade, or whoever, looking this way or did someone down the road 'beautified' it?

I believe there may have been one or two very eary ones where the mount parts were polished aluminum. Probably prototypes. Mizar made all the 2045s for Meade. I remember seeing the purple tube prototypes in 1979 when I was working at Meade. Are you sure that's brass, and not just the lighting? wouldn't be hard to put contact paper on the aluminum tube. I doubt it's veneer.

That's brass plating. I briefly considered trying something like this with my C8 and came to my senses. You can tell it's not the lighting because there are various things in the photos that are pure white. As for the tube, I'm 100% confident it's not contact paper. In one of the photos that includes the finder, you can see checking in the tube. No way that's contact paper or even veneer. I suppose it could be veneer, but I doubt veneer would check like that. Solid wood, however, absolutely.

Obviously pick up only. Too much for me, my garage is already full of telescopes.

if it weren't so far away, I'd buy it even though I have no room for it. 12.5" Cass. Don't recognize the cell, and the mount looks a bit star-liner ish. Rings look Cave.

Wow, that's a cool scope, even if a kluge. Definitely a Starliner mount. Almost certainly Cave rotating rings. It appears to be set up as a newt at the moment (a big hard to tell without being able to magnify the images). I also think that may be a Byers drive on there. If so, that may make the podium for steal of the year.

Ben H says this is a "refinished." The listing says: "Astronomy shop said there were few manufactured in the 1980s by Celestron." We can assume Celestron was not making telescopes for Meade. But, Meade and Celestron did make small runs of scopes over the years that had a luxury item appearance. I can think of other scopes done in brass. Does anyone know if this scope was made by Meade, or whoever, looking this way or did someone down the road 'beautified' it?

I believe there may have been one or two very eary ones where the mount parts were polished aluminum. Probably prototypes. Mizar made all the 2045s for Meade. I remember seeing the purple tube prototypes in 1979 when I was working at Meade. Are you sure that's brass, and not just the lighting? wouldn't be hard to put contact paper on the aluminum tube. I doubt it's veneer.

I seem to remember a C5 redone like this some years ago. I wonder if someone was doing it on their own, to a few different scopes?

Ben H says this is a "refinished." The listing says: "Astronomy shop said there were few manufactured in the 1980s by Celestron." We can assume Celestron was not making telescopes for Meade. But, Meade and Celestron did make small runs of scopes over the years that had a luxury item appearance. I can think of other scopes done in brass. Does anyone know if this scope was made by Meade, or whoever, looking this way or did someone down the road 'beautified' it?

I believe there may have been one or two very eary ones where the mount parts were polished aluminum. Probably prototypes. Mizar made all the 2045s for Meade. I remember seeing the purple tube prototypes in 1979 when I was working at Meade. Are you sure that's brass, and not just the lighting? wouldn't be hard to put contact paper on the aluminum tube. I doubt it's veneer.

I seem to remember a C5 redone like this some years ago. I wonder if someone was doing it on their own, to a few different scopes?

Obviously pick up only. Too much for me, my garage is already full of telescopes.

if it weren't so far away, I'd buy it even though I have no room for it. 12.5" Cass. Don't recognize the cell, and the mount looks a bit star-liner ish. Rings look Cave.

it looks like it is about 200 miles from LA.

The pics aren't very helpful, but the one showing the primary doesn't show a hole in the center. Also, there's a Newt focuser partially hidden by the finder. So looks like an ATM with various commercial parts. Still, 50 bucks is cheap. But I don't have time to drive to SLO for it.

Ben H says this is a "refinished." The listing says: "Astronomy shop said there were few manufactured in the 1980s by Celestron." We can assume Celestron was not making telescopes for Meade. But, Meade and Celestron did make small runs of scopes over the years that had a luxury item appearance. I can think of other scopes done in brass. Does anyone know if this scope was made by Meade, or whoever, looking this way or did someone down the road 'beautified' it?

I believe there may have been one or two very eary ones where the mount parts were polished aluminum. Probably prototypes. Mizar made all the 2045s for Meade. I remember seeing the purple tube prototypes in 1979 when I was working at Meade. Are you sure that's brass, and not just the lighting? wouldn't be hard to put contact paper on the aluminum tube. I doubt it's veneer.

That's brass plating. I briefly considered trying something like this with my C8 and came to my senses. You can tell it's not the lighting because there are various things in the photos that are pure white. As for the tube, I'm 100% confident it's not contact paper. In one of the photos that includes the finder, you can see checking in the tube. No way that's contact paper or even veneer. I suppose it could be veneer, but I doubt veneer would check like that. Solid wood, however, absolutely.

Veneer definitely will check like that. I've got furniture like that. It's highly improbable it's solid wood, because the surface is flush with the brass parts. On a stock 2045, the tube is threaded into both cells, so slightly smaller in diameter than the cells. So thin veneer could make it flush.